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Halo: First Strike
''Halo: First Strike ''is the third Halo ''book in the main series, and the sequel to ''Halo: The Fall of Reach and Halo: The Flood. It was written by Eric Nylund and published by Del Rey Books. The book is a sequel to the events of Halo: Combat Evolved, and a prequel to Halo 2. The book was released on December 2, 2003, eight months after the release of Halo: The Flood. It immediately starts off following the ending of Halo: Combat Evolved, right up until John-117 returning to Earth. Like the book's namesake, the book features Operation: FIRST STRIKE. The novel was reissued on December 21, 2010 by Tor Books, with many of the typos and mistakes present in the original being ironed out; the reissue was also given a new cover art. Story Synopsis Section 0: Reach The prologue begins before the Fall of Reach flashing back to Chapter 34 in Halo: The Fall of Reach where Captain Keyes informed John-117 of the matter of the unsecured NAV database. Fred-104 is made the leader of Red Team and ordered to take the other SPARTAN-IIs down to Reach to protect the generators powering the orbital MAC guns. The narrative then follows Red Team as they ride a Pelican down to the surface, but are forced to make a supersonic hard landing to the ground after the pilot gets hit by plasma fire from Seraph fighters. The impact kills four of the Spartans and leaves many more seriously injured. Most lose their weapons and ammunition, Fred-104 and Kelly-087 improvise using rocks until they are able to police Covenant weapons from a group of Jackals they kill. The Spartans then group up with the remaining four marines in Charlie Company. The marines summarize how the battle has gone, saying that they were the only ones who survived the battle to that point. Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb contacts Fred-104 and orders him and the Spartans to extract him and his staff claiming that he was the current officer in charge of the defense of Reach. Fred-104 takes Kelly-087 and Joshua-029 on a mission to destroy a large Covenant camp in a valley near the bunker Charlie Company once occupied. Taking three Banshees, they deliver a Fury tactical nuke into a Covenant ship. During the assault, Joshua-029's Banshee is shot down and he is presumed dead. Fred-104 and Kelly-087 complete the mission without complications and destroy the cruiser. Despite their efforts however, the Covenant manage to overrun the reactors on Reach and the Covenant begin to glass the planet. Fred-104, however, refusing to sit around and die comes up with a plan. He and Kelly-087 take their captured Banshees, and together they fly away from the scene. Section I: Threshold The narrative returns to the present, picking up right after the events of Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo: The Flood. John-117 and Cortana, still in their Longsword, are traversing the debris field of Installation 04 after its destruction. Aboard the Longsword, John-117 and Cortana converse, with John-117 insisting that Cortana repeat her scans of the debris for any signs of life. Cortana then detects a battlegroup of seven Covenant warships, accompanied by a flagship. She also finds three cryo-chambers that were jettisoned from the Pillar of Autumn ''prior to its crash landing on Alpha Halo. While she moves the Longsword towards the cryopods, she discovers a Pelican hiding nearby. As John-117 retrieves the cryopods and returns to the Longsword, the Pelican takes off and attacks the lead Covenant ship, diverting attention away from the Longsword. The two small ships link up, and several survivors jump out of the Pelican, namely Sergeant Johnson, ODST Corporal Locklear, Warrant Officer Shiela Polaski and ONI Lieutenant Elias Haverson. John-117, having seen a video of Johnson getting infected, slams him into the bulkhead and aims Johnson's pistol squarely at Johnson's head, waiting for an explanation on how he could have survived. Johnson, through his own words, says that he must not have tasted good to the Flood. After confirming with Cortana that he isn't infected John-117 releases Johnson. Together the group manages to board the Covenant flagship; a DDS-class carrier called the ''Ascendant Justice. They fight their way to the bridge and along the way plug Cortana into the vessel's computer and she effectively kills most of the combat crew by decompressing most of the decks of the vessel. However, she learns that they're running out of time, as the fleet is a prelude to a Covenant dignitary's arrival at Alpha Halo, and their vessel has a massive escort. The group makes it to the bridge only to confront a SpecOps Elite wielding an Energy Sword, whom John-117 defeats with the help of Johnson and Locklear, sustaining a slight injury. The defeat of the Elite warrior allows the humans to gain complete control of the Covenant flagship.